Instead he went to his homeland, where he will spend the rest of the week.

He is still trying to bring in players before tomorrow’s transfer deadline.

And last night it emerged that one of his targets is Yossi Benayoun, 31, a midfield playmaker who looks surplus to requirements at Chelsea.

During international breaks Wenger has a contract to work as a pundit for French TV station TF1. But France do not play their Euro 2012 qualifier in Albania until Friday. Wenger yesterday made a personal apology to supportersfor the Old Trafford debacle.

And the club announced that as a thank you to the travelling fans who continued to support the team as they were being hammered they will offer to pay for a ticket to another away match.

Around 3,000 fans are thought to have made the 400-mile round trip.

“The fans do not want to see their team like that,” said Wenger. “We can only apologise and come back in our strength and desire in the next game.

“Big scores are humiliating and difficult to swallow but I don’t think they have a special meaning. They are alwaysunder special circumstances.”

Wenger’s “special circumstances” were a lengthy injury list, which robbed him of the services of Jack Wilshere, Thomas Vermaelen and Bacary Sagna among others, plus the suspensions of Alex Song, Gervinho and Emmanuel Frimpong.

He also has lost skipper Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri to Barcelona and Manchester City this summer.

Confirmation that South Korean forward Park Chu-young will arrive from Monaco in a deal which will cost an initial £3m did not do much to lessen the anger around the Emirates Stadium.

Supporters remain mystified as to why Arsenal did not make an attempt to sign West Ham’s Scott Parker, who is bound for Spurs.

They are questioning the amount of money being made available by the club’s owners given the much-needed acquisition of Gary Cahill floundered on Friday following a bid claimed to be around £6m, which Bolton regarded as an insult.

Fans were also surprised to see Wenger allow left-back Armand Traore, who started at United, have talks yesterday about a move to QPR.

But Wenger is understood to have been less than pleased at the Senegal international’s reaction to the defeat, with him being spotted smiling and chewing gum in front of Arsenal fans.